A clearer understanding of the structure and physiological role of the complex carbohydrate-containing macromolecules of cell envelopes constitutes the primary long-range goal of this project. It is becoming increasingly evident that many crucial physiological phenomena are related to the interactions of a cell with its environment and that the various components of the cell's envelope structure play a primary role in regulating this interaction. We are attempting to understand the detailed structure of cell envelope components and how they are assembled to form the surface architecture. More importantly, we are attempting to define in specific molecular terms the role that these envelope macromolecules play in regulating specific protein secretion from cells, both microbial and mammalian. In the microbial systems we shall attempt to define various aspects of genetic regulation of the functional and structural aspects of the cell envelope components. In the mammalian systems, while it is not possible to do the same kind of genetic analysis of these phenomena, efforts will be made to define the structure and function of carbohydrate-containing macromolecules and cell surface components of normal and abnormal cells specifically, abnormal cells in which there is some reason to believe that the cell surface components are functioning in an abnormal manner, such as malignant cells and cystic fibrosis cells.